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Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Category: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
Cost: $50 (includes 1 month subscription; $13-$16 per month thereafter)
Demo: Free Trial
OS X: Yes
OS 9: No
Multiplayer: Absolutely!
ESRB: Teen to Mature
System Requirements: 933 MHz or higher G4/G5; Mac OS
X 10.3.5 or later; 512 MB of RAM; Video card with 32 MB VRAM;
4 GB of
hard disk space; 56K or higher modem with an internet connection.
Machines Tested On:
- Dual 1.8 GHz G5- 1
GB of RAM ; ATI 9700 Pro 256MB VRAM ; Mac OS X 10.3.3
867 MHz 12”
- Powerbook
G4- 640 MB RAM; GeForce4 MX 32MB VRAM; Mac OS X 10.2.8
Read more about World of Warcraft at:
The Swirling Portal Beckons
The pleasant vista lures you to a fantasy
land of quiet grottos, grand mountains, and blue skies. But twin
shadowy figures and
a serpent guard the entrance which is surrounded by jagged terrain and the
smoke of destruction. Contrasting images that hint at the turbulent
nature of this
world, the World of Warcraft- dare you enter?
But it's time for adventure! Leaping through the portal, the lands of Lordaeron,
Azeroth, Khaz Modan, and Kalimdore come sharply into focus. Transported to
a time approximately 4 years after Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, an unsettling
peace
exits between the Alliance and Horde. Once inside the portal the change of
perspective is astonishing. No longer is the World of Warcraft surveyed from
a god's-eye
view and a somewhat detached perspective. With your feet on the ground, in
all of it's 3rd person goodness, this expansive beautiful world surrounds
you. The
World of Warcraft just sucked you in and there is no turning back!
My RPG Background
My game preferences typically lean toward First Person Shooter (FPS)
or Real Time Strategy (RTS) games such as Unreal Tournament and Warcraft.
I've tried
to like Role Playing Games (RPG), games such as Dungeon Siege, Diablo, and Heros
of Might and Magic, but they have never grabbed me. But I know Blizzard, their
quality games, their support of the Mac market, and their track record. I loved
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Starcraft, both are great Blizzard RTS games.
I owed it to myself to sign up for the WoW beta and give RPGs one more shot.
When I was finally accepted into one of the later beta groups, I became one of
the multitudes, who were pulled through the WoW portal and have been playing
practically no other game since. I have 18 months experience playing another
Massive Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Game (MMORPG) called Planetside, but
it is a PC-only game which plays more like an FPS. So WoW is my first fantasy
based MMORPG.
Why should you consider WoW?
The word is out and WoW rocks! Blizzard conducted one of, if not the largest
beta test ever. Sign-ups for the open stress test (open beta), shut down when
more than 500,000 people clamored to get in. Since it's November 2004 retail
release, WoW has accumulated in excess of 1.5 million subscribers. This kind
of interest makes WoW worth a look for all Mac gamers regardless of your gaming
preference.
2007 Update: World of Warcraft has amassed 8+ million subscribers
world wide.
WoW Zones
The World of Warcraft consists of 2 huge zones consisting of the Eastern
Kingdom and the Western Kingdom separated by the Great Sea and totals
over 43 distinct
regions. All most every kind of environment imaginable is there for exploring.
Forests of all kinds dot the landscape from the pleasant canopy of Elwynn Forest,
to the rich North woods of Dark Shore, and the creepiness of Dusk Wood. Wow contains
lush tropical environments like Stranglethorn Vale and Un'Goro crater, the rain
forest of Feralas, the majestic desert of Tanaris, the savannah of The Barrens,
the swamp of Dustwallow Marsh, the alpine setting of the Arathi Highlands, the
rugged snowy peaks of Dun Morogh, and lots more. WoW can be truly beautiful,
but it also has it's share of hell holes for which I include Desolace, The Burning
Steppes, The Blasted Lands, and a relatively new area, Silithus. Upon entering
the less desirable locations of WoW, the heaviness of the atmosphere presses
down upon you along with a feeling of dread, a great gaming atmosphere that strikes
a sharp contrast between regions.
Birds fly by, deer and majestic elk roam the forests, snakes slither
on the ground, along with all manner of critters such as bunnies, squirrels,
and bugs. I'd better
mention the giant spiders. Along with the routine hostile animals such as bears,
wolves, and large felines, the World includes humongous spiders, creeping ooze,
giant crocs, raptors, dogs from hell, jumbo dinosaurs, moonkin, many intelligent
creatures such as Murlocs, Furbogs, Ogres, and Riverpaw, an assortment of criminals
such as the Defias Brotherhood, and a variety of undead creatures.
The only zone loads occur when traveling between the Eastern and Western Lands,
when riding the Deep Run Tram between Storm Wind City and Iron Forge, and when
entering an Instance (a protected questing space). I want to emphasis there are
no zone loads as you travel from one region to another within a zone. Where as
in other MMORPGs, characters may have to have traverse several zone loads to
get through one relatively small area. This is amazing because when you take
a gryphon ride across multiple regions, live action events will be happening
below as you pass overhead.
Character Creation
The WoW experience starts with creating a character on a PvP (Player vs Player)
or PvE (Player vs Environment) server. PvP servers allow players of opposing
factions to fight one another on a regular basis. This can interfere with quests
and is something you should think about because once a character is created,
they can't be transferred to a different server.
Alliance characters are Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes. Horde races
are Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and Undead. With the exception of Tauren, the Horde
are truly an ugly lot. The Undead turn me off, with their rotting bodies, exposed
bone, not to mention bad posture! But to each their own. I won't hold it against
you if Undead is your favorite class, but I may wonder. :) Alliance and horde
do not understand each other's language, so text chat comes across as gibberish.
Character creation choices are somewhat limited. Although features such
as face, facial hair, markings, hair style/color, and skin color can
be altered, all classes
of the same gender have the same body and head. Most variation in appearance
is due to what clothing and gear a character is wearing. Don't be surprised to
see multiple versions of your character, wearing different clothes running around
the the World.
Part of character creation is choosing your character's class. WoW offers magical,
physical, hybrid, and pet classes. All though the physical process of creating
a character is easy, choosing a class requires some thought. My suggestion is
to visit the World of Warcraft Site for class info. See MacGamer's World of Warcraft
Q&D for more info on servers and character creation.
First Steps
New characters start out in a mostly safe environment. For Night Elves, my favorite
race, it's the island of Teldrassil off the Northern Kalimdore coast. Logging
in as a character for the first time, a 15 sec history lesson is presented as
your character appears in Shadowglen, a beautiful woodland enclave with magnificent
trees. Looking around you'll see a variety of animals roaming the landscape and
the Night Elf with a golden apostrophe above his head, indicating that he is
a quest giver. Click on him to receive the quest and you are off and running.
The World includes many helpful visual pointers. When the game cursor is moved
over a vendor, it turns into a money bag. When moved over a trainer it turns
into a book. Guards in larger towns will display a dialog box. They can tell
you and mark the map with many important locations such as trainers, the bank,
and the auction house.
Before you run too far, become familiar with WoW's interface. The display
is clean and efficient with a large toolbar and icons presented along
the bottom
of the screen. The customizable toolbar is used to quickly access a character's
abilities- spells, attacks, food, and health potions. Multiple tool bars are
available but are displayed one at a time, and can be scrolled up and down using
arrows on the interface or a quick key combination. See MacGamer's Word of Warcraft
Q&D for information on WoW interface enhancements.
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